31 May 2010, public announcement of the resignation with immediate effect, Langhans-Saal, Schloss Bellevue, Berlin

﻿Biography:

Born into a family of the Bessarabian Germans who migrated to the General Government, a part of Poland occupied by German Reich, in 1942; family moved to Leipzig in 1944 and resided in the German Democratic Republic until 1953 when they fled to West Germany; completed a course of education in the Mörike-Gymnasium in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg (1963); after two years of military service, he entered the Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, graduating in 1969 with a diploma in economics; worked in the Institute for Applied Economic Research, Tübingen (1969-1976); earned a doctorate in 1977; was employed by the federal ministry of economy (1976-1980); joined the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich Demokratische Union, CDU) in 1981; headed various departments and served as state secretary of the federal finance ministry (1982-1993); was appointed deputy minister of finance (1990-1993); led negotiations on behalf of the German government on the agreement that became the Maastricht treaty on European Economic and Monetary Union; served as president of the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband, an association of saving banks (1993-1998), and as president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1998-2000); held the office of Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (2000-2004); was elected Federal President by the 12th Bundesversammlung (Federal Assembly) in 2004 and re-elected by the 13th Bundesversammlung in 2009.